'New' Harry Potter Out In December

Posted at 11:27AM Thursday 31 Jul 2008

J K Rowling's children's charity is to publish The Tales of Beedle the Bard in an exclusive deal with Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon.

Fans around the world have been clamouring to read the wizarding fairy tales - created, handwritten and illustrated by J K Rowling - since last December, when Amazon famously bid £1.95 million / $4 million for the charity copy, one of only seven in existence, at Sotheby's in London.

The Children's High Level Group will publish three editions of the book, all in the English language, to be printed and distributed by Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon. The Bloomsbury and Scholastic editions (£6.99 / $12.99) will feature additional commentary on each fairy tale from Professor Dumbledore and an introduction by J K Rowling. Amazon will produce up to a maximum of 100,000 Collector's Edition copies (£50 / $100), which will aim to closely replicate the look and feel of the original 'Beedle'. All editions will go on sale on Thursday 4 December 2008.

All net proceeds from the sale of the books - expected to be in the region of £4 million / $8 million - will be donated to CHLG.